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Summary

After pretty much falling out of the league, Melo revived his career in Portland in the '19-'20 season. He's shown that he can still hit outside shots at a solid rate, and is someone that you can go to in the mid-post with the shot-clock winding down. Melo isolating in the mid-post is not something you want a heavy dose of in your offense, but it's a nice fallback to have with 2nd units when the offense gets stalled.

 

Despite hitting outside shots at a reasonable rate, Melo's poor finishing at the rim really drives down his efficiency, as he's been in the bottom 25th percentile for his position in eFG% over the last four season, according to Cleaning the Glass. At age 36, Melo just doesn't have the lift to consistently finish at the rim.

 

On defense, Melo also struggles, as he has never been a strong perimeter defender, and that has only worsened with age. In 2nd units, his defense deficiencies can be masked, but you still would ideally have a decent rim protector next to him to make up for some of his mistakes. Melo has been able to extend his career, but has too many flaws to get more than minimum offers.

 

Cap Considerations

Anthony will be an unrestricted free agent with a $1.7 million cap hold and Early Bird rights. Since the Blazers will most likely be operating over the salary cap, they will retain Anthony's Early Bird rights until he is re-signed or signs elsewhere. The Blazers could offer Anthony a starting salary of up to 5% more than the average salary (likely around $10 million) using the Early Bird exception, which should be more than enough should they wish to bring him back.

 

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Anthony as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or possibly even the Room MLE or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. Since he signed a minimum contract this offseason, teams will hope to get him at the minimum next summer too.

Potential Teams: Trailblazers, Bulls, Pelicans, Celtics, Lakers

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $2.6 million ($1.7 million cap hit) with the Trailblazers

Actual Contract: 1-year, $2.6 million ($1.7 million cap hit) with the Lakers

Anthony signed a one-year minimum as expected, and could provide a scoring spark off the bench for the Lakers and providing shooting around Lebron and Westbrook.

Last updated: 8/16/2021

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